AniMat's Reviews - Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Transcript)
This page contains the full transcript of AniMat's review of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation that he published on July 13th, 2018. 1. Introduction Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. Yes, the Drac Pack is back to polarize audiences once again. The Hotel Transylvania movies are one of the few franchises where audiences are entirely split on rather if they are good or bad. Some became fans for the sharp comedy and the Saturday morning style cartoony animation, others would trash it for constantly presenting low quality writing and storytelling and how they're just like any other Happy Madison film of the 2010 decade, but wearing a cartoon mask. For those who are familiar with my reviews, it's no surprise that I would categorise myself among the latter. I mean, they're not some of the worst animated films I've seen and I'll give them that they do have some legitimate funny moments. But the biggest issue about them is that they are some of the prime examples that enforce the stereotype of how animation is nothing more than a kid genre. With the way these films present little to no professional effort put into either their script or their animation, they feel less like legitimate animated features with an artistic reason and more like soulless time wasters whose only purpose is to profit off of easily influencial kids and being milked for what it's worth until it's bone dry. With all that said, does the franchise really think that a third movie would change anyone's minds about it, especially when the marketing was presenting it being no different than how the last two were? But now that Dracula and the gang are bringing audiences to a cruise vacation, will it actually be smooth sailing for this movie, or will this have the franchise meet the same fate as the Titanic? Let's find out! 2. The Story When the monster gang first enters the cruise, Drac wasn't fully enthusiastic, often saying to his friends: Dracula: 'Yeah, so impressive. It's like a hotel on the water!' Maybe that was a just a small burst of self-awareness, but it doesn't change how that's the best way to summarise the story. It's like it took the structure of the first film and claims it as its own with minor changes. Instead of a hotel, the monsters are on a cruise, and the human-vampire romance is now with Drac and a new girl named Ericka. It follows the same template so much that it also brought in all of its writing issues, including how the entire film is completely predictable by the first 20 minutes and how there is more filler than there is an actual plot. Speaking of the latter, due to its large cast, the movie also includes a whole bunch of sideplots where it would constantly get sidetracked from the main story and have absolutely no purpose, including Wayne and Wanda being free from their kids, Dennis and Winnie bringing the giant dog Tinkles onto the cruise, and all the other characters spending time on vacation activities solely for the purpose of a gag. Dracula: "Okay, Dad. Thank you." Not to mention that it still has its signature desperate attempt to be cool and hip with the kids, especially with its cringy finale of EDM versus dated pop songs. However, when it comes to Hotel Transylvania in general, many don't care about its storytelling, most agree that their writing as a film is just garbage. But what's more important to fans is how it is a comedy; Is this movie at least funny? Well, as I've said before, the previous films can have some legitimate funny moments worth laughing, even for someone like me who doesn't like those movies. With the third installment however, it's honestly hard to think of anything that earned a laugh. Maybe a chuckle or two, but the humour is mostly flat. The movie tries so hard to throw so much slapstick comedy for every second it has and it can be quite overbearing more than it is funny. Like, this is the type of film whose worst fear is if the audience would be bored at any time, so it doesn't give itself any breaks and be over-the-top as possible, thinking that's how it would grad audiences' attention. But depsite all of its efforts to cover the feature with an endless display of failed gags, it cannot hide its terrible writing and that it doesn't know how to tell a story. 3. The Animation One element that makes the Hotel Transylvania movie series stand out from the rest is that they're the kind of films that values their unique animation style more than their script. Considering how the director has no understanding of the difference between feature animation and television animation, he would treat this as if it was one of his Saturday morning cartoons, which is also why the movie brings out a feeling that they would act like half-hour episodes of a TV show rather than a legitimate feature film. There are elements that can treat itself like a computer animated feature like with some of the textures of the characters and the visual effects, which does present some good rendering. Also, it does expand the world of the franchise by bringing the monsters to fabled areas like the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis. Sure, like the franchise itself, they feel like wasted opportunities by how they're executed writing-wise, but at least they present some interesting cruise theme interpretations of the places. But then, you have the characters. With the large variety of monsters that are onboard, it presents a clear sign that the production spent more time designing cartoony monsters than to craft a good story. As for the character animation, as I've said before, the execution of the film has an erratic behaviour, which includes characters moving in the most exaggerated and over-the-top poses whenever they speak, kind of like a backup plan if the writing can't think of anything funny, then have the animation fill in the lowbrow humour by having the characters make their movements goofy. Dracula: "Mavis, I beg of you, tell me where we're going!" Mavis: "I've taken care of everything." But with its cartoony style, the way that it's interpreting its computer animation is much like many of those rebooted animated series, taking a medium known to incorporate a strong, artistic flair and stretching it to give it a more limited and comedic approach to have it be closer to the style of abstract cartoons. In other words, Hotel Transylvania shares the same quality of animation as shows like Teen Titans Go!, ThunderCats Roar, and the 2016 Powerpuff Girls reboot. Rather if that can be viewed as a good or bad thing, that could depend on who you ask. But don't be surprised if some would get angry about it due to their blind bias against those shows. 4. The Characters With a movie that focuses more on delivering as many gags as possible, it's no secret that it leaves little to no room to grow any of its recurring characters or add something special with their new ones, resulting in a set of just dull and clichéd tropes. And yet, with its large cast, very few have any significance to the main story. Dracula is just the protagonist lover boy who is head over heels for the captain of the ship, Ericka. But with this love comes a dark secret where Ericka is actually the great-granddaughter of the legendary monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing, as they both plot to take down all the monsters. So yes folks, Dracula is in love with the villain, and in no way whatsoever does she ever turn good! It will never happen that she would develop feelings for Drac, fall in love with him during her mission and ending up saving his life, followed by everybody dancing the Macarena. Nope, she's obviously evil the whole way through! Dracula: Must have been garlic in the guacemole." Ericka: "Isn't that deadly for you?" Dracula: (farts) "Eh he... was that you?" The only other character that might have a point is just Mavis to give Dracula some emotional support. But even then, she still doesn't present any sort of personality of her own. But hey, she's got a new swimsuit! I'm sure that'll please the dark side of DeviantArt! As for the rest, the movie features a big list of side characters. In fact, there are many side characters, perhaps too many side characters. This is a key reason as to why the story feels like such a disorganised mess. It feels like it needs to show what every recognisable character of the franchise is currently doing on the boat without any purpose to the film itself. Like, the movie would still be the same without any of Drac's friends, Vlad, the little kids and Tinkles, the werewolves, Blobby, and everyone's least favourite Hotel Transylvania character, cartoon Logan Paul, or as you may know as Johnny. With a film that values quantity over quality, the characters are either categorised as generically dull or pointless comic reliefs. 5. Conclusion Wow... this is probably the first time I came out of a movie feeling bad about how pathetic it is. Like, I legit feel sorry for how terrible it turned out to be. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation brings the franchise to a low where it has become the new Ice Age - now driven by lazy filmmaking instead of having any sort of effort or ideas implemented and trying desperately to entertain audiences with over-the-top, silly animation instead of just telling a good story. The writing is a disaster, resulting in a plot that's a total predictable mess along with characters that are either bland or pointless, and the bad humour makes both the tone and the animation feel more irritating than enjoyable. Now, for my recommendation, I'm going to ask you to just look at the title. Forget about everything else, just focus on the title: Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. That should explain everything about this movie and what will happen with no surprises. If that is enough to get you excited, set your expectations high and have a need to see it as soon as possible, then you'll most likely enjoy it. In fact, you probably already have an unchangeable positive opinion about the film, so why are you even watching this? However, if you still feel unsure or sceptical even after looking at this title, then this is not worth either your time or money. But if you ask me, I never liked the first two films and this certainly was no different. In fact, I feel like this is the worst of the three, and that is why this is an easy AniMat's Seal of Garbage. At this rate, for the sake of the trilogy, it should stay a trilogy! 6. Ratings Story: 2/10 Animation: 5/10 Characters: 3/10 Total: 3/10 Category:2018 Category:Transcripts Category:Sony Pictures Animation Category:3/10 movies